FLESHING OUT THE ARMATURE" Now that the basic armature, minus the arms, neck and head is done, I'll then go in and fill out the basic anatomy of the figure. One concern of sculptors is getting layers of Sculpey or even putty to stick to one another. For this project two things aid me in getting the Sculpey to stick to the armature and itself. The armature construction with the wire spiraling around the legs give the material something to hang onto. The other thing is brushing Sculpey Diluent onto the armature. Sculpey Diluent is a liquid that helps to restore the shelf life to Sculpey to make it workable. Diluent also is great for brushing on a sculpey surface where additional layers are going to be applied.

I will start fleshing out the armature by building up the basic shape of the shoes my figure will be wearing. I start by brushing a little of the Diluent on the working base to help the Sculpey stick to the surface. The first thing I do is take a piece of Sculpey and start pushing it under, over and around that part of the armature.
One thing to keep in mind is to not use too much material. If you put too much material on any part of the armature, especially in the begining it has a tendency to start moving around on the armature and just ends up creating a lot of stress.

I will try to show in the following photos how I sculpted the basic shoe shape for the figure. There are no tried and true shortcuts or tricks here. One tool that is of great help through all of this is observation. If you are able to look at your subject and interpret what you see into miniature that's half the battle. Unfortunately translating what we observe is easier said than done. It's all a matter of practice. there are times when we succeed the first time and others the 10th time.

Here more material is put around the area of the foot.

More and more material is built up here. Keep in mind that this figure is wearing shoes so as we build up material we are going for that look. Remember the soles of the shoes will be worked into this shoe when they are detailed later on.

Here more material is built up using my plastic strip stock to help keep the foot scale. Note that the shoe shape slowly emerges from a build up of material. Be mindful of this while working on any and all areas of the figure. Try not to start with the section finished, it will come.

Here you can see the shoe taking shape.

Here the other foot is begun. It's probably best to work on these at the same time to ensure they both end up being of the same length, width and construction.

Here are the feet/shoes built up with my plastic strip placed alongside the left foot.

These two photos show the spatula tool used for the majority of the work in building up the shoes. The most challenging thing here is to get both shoes the same. If you can get the length and width the same all that is left is getting the shoes to appear to be of the same construction.

Here the tool is used to shape the contour of the sole/bottom of the shoe.

NOTE These are just the basic shoe. They will be finished later on in the project.

This portion is covered very briefly as there is really little being done here. I continue to flesh out the armature by adding a small portion of Sculpey to the legs and pelvic region. It begins by brushing on Diluent and then applying small amounts of Sculpey. Once the Sculpey is applied to the rod armature I then texture it with a toothbrush and X-acto knife. This texture will help additional layers of sculpey adhere to this one.

Excellent.

-jim cox

Gary,

This is truly excellent. I can't wait for the next step. How would you go about cutting this figure for reproduction? Disregard the question if you are going to cover this later.

I love the way that even at this stage the figure has character- the angles of the legs, the twist of the torso- it's alive! For me, this is the pure fun part of sculpting. Refining the figure is fun, too, but on another level... So many fine art sculptors don't take it beyond the 'sketch' stage. There's something so seductive about the rough form. This is an inspiring thread :lol:

This is without a doubt one of the best if not the best step by step on sculpting that I ever seen,truly educational and inspirational.

Thanks and please continue the great work.

Cheers
Roc.

Dear Gary,

Very informative and inspirational.

I have a question though. Since you are using sculpey, I believe you will need to cure it in a oven. By sculpting it on a base, how do you pry it off without deforming it or do you place both the base and figure into the oven as a whole.

regards

Thanks for providing this help, Gary!

Cheers

Guys, Thanks for the positive responses, I'm glad the sbs is helpful to you.

John, I will sculpt the figure as if it were being done for production. The figure will be engineered as it is being sculpted and will break down into its pieces/parts. I no longer "cut" a figure apart after completion as you lose too much material in the process.

Wong, When I bake a figure the entire piece goes into the oven on it's working base. The only time it does not is when there are materials such as putty or plastic on the figure that will not withstand the high temperature. Welcome back to Pf.~Gary

Here are the legs with a few thin layers of material applied. The texture comes from a toothbrush and X-acto knife to give additional material something to hold onto. I use either my finger or paintbrush to spread Sculpey Diluent to the area I'm adding material too. The figure is baked for 30 minutes at 250 degrees after adding each layer.

My main goal is to focus on the basic shapes of the legs as they will be covered. It's important not to fill the figure out too much. This is where some comercial armature figures fail. At times the figure is too "bulked" up and may not have that period appearance you're trying to achieve.